Kukla's Korner Hockey

''We have an opportunity in front of us,'' said Jacobs, the team's executive vice president, ''and we've got to work very hard to make sure that we do make the best of it. It is a critical time.''
His family has long fought the rap that it was just a bunch of carpetbaggers from Buffalo, more concerned with selling hot dogs for its concessions business than providing a championship contender for passionate fans. His father Jeremy was more interested in the bottom line, critics said.
''Whoever wrote that or writes that doesn't know him, never met him,'' Charlie Jacobs said. ''You spend 10 minutes with the man, you'll understand. He loves this game more than anything. It's funny. I'm the youngest of six children. My father really has seven children. The seventh one is the Boston Bruins. He loves it like a child.''